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Another person guided to the right path.... read with an open mind....
I discovered many many explanations of the trinity, and do you know what? At one point, intellectually, I really did believe that it made sense. Some explanations were, for example, its like water H2O, which can be all steam, ice and liquid, but it is still the same water H20. Another was that if God is love, then Jesus is the one that is loved, God is the lover and the Holy Spirit is the spirit of love and it's all the same love.
So I went on believing this, and even argued with it to friends who didn't understand and asked me to explain it. But you know, in my heart of hearts, in my spirit, it never really did make sense to me. How could 1 + 1 + 1 = 1 ? Furthermore, God, I believed, is a God of clarity, not confusion, if He wanted us to know Him as a triune God then surely He would have told us this explicitly. Instead in fact when I looked to the Bible (especially the work before the coming of Paul) I found that the message is in fact quite the opposite. Some examples are Numbers 23:19 Isaiah 43:11 Luke 4:8
With regards to the Holy Spirit, I figured that if the Holy Spirit was already on Earth when Jesus was alive, then how was it that it was sent after he apparently died? It was the Holy Spirit that caused Jesus' own virgin birth in fact. Then I noticed how the accounts of the so-called coming of the Holy Spirit after Jesus is resurrected were different in each of the Gospels. Some Gospels say Holy Spirit in Jesus' speech, while others do not. I thought this is so crucial, surely if it was guaranteed that Jesus was speaking of the Holy Spirit then all of them would have said! Instead, I later conceived, he seemed to be talking of the coming of another person i.e a Counsellor. John 14: 16 John 15:26 John 16: 7, 13. With closer scrutiny one can evade the interpolations to realise that Jesus did in fact prophesy the advent of the Last and Final Messenger here, that is Prophet Muhammad.
This then raised the issue of salvation through Jesus
I again really did believe this, until I studied the Bible more closely. I thought about it rationally. If you have a Christian, who proclaims that Jesus is their Lord and saviour BUT behaves like a devil, then you have anyone else in another religion who behaves morally superior to that Christian BUT has not declared Jesus as saviour, who will be dammed and sent to Hell? Surely God is perfect Justice. Does putting your hand up in response to the pastor in some church meeting for his call to "save the lost by accepting Jesus" mean that that person has eternal life regardless? What's the point of Judgement day for Christians then? If they know they are "saved", why be good? Where is the real fear of God, and hating of sin if we think like this? I certainly couldn't really fear God how I was meant to and hate sin as I was meant to when I thought like this. In Islam, no one is guaranteed Salvation (Paradise), rather all those who have acted unrighteous in this life, including Muslims, will be relegated to Hell (albeit for an appointed time).
Interestingly though, the Bible actually indicates in the OT that salvation through another is impossible, in other words another man cannot bear the sins of another. Examples,- Ezekiel 18:20 Psalm 49 Isaiah 43:11.
In response to these scriptures Christians may say there is no issue here because Jesus is God. And that moves on to the next problem I faced...
